Yet another GOP debate tonight

cartoon credit: gstatic.com

(The cartoon says Weds., but the image was too good to pass up 

just because it's Thursday.)

Another GOP "debate" tonight on Fox at 9pm. Expect another brawl.

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It’s Super Tuesday

map credit: dailykos.com

From Politico:

What is Super Tuesday?

“Super Tuesday,” which is scheduled for March 1, refers to the day when a dozen states (and one territory) will hold their nominating contests this year. Generally, “Super Tuesday” is the unofficial name for a Tuesday during the presidential primary election when the largest number of states hold their nominating contests.

Which states are voting on Super Tuesday?

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia will hold contests for both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in Alaska will hold caucuses. Democrats in Colorado will hold their caucuses as well. Finally, Democrats in American Samoa are also holding their nominating contest.

When do polls close on Super Tuesday?

Voting occurs throughout the day, but polls will close at different times. Polls in Alabama, Georgia, Vermont and Virginia close at 7 p.m. (all times Eastern). Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee close their polls at 8 p.m. Most Texas polls close at 8, but a few in the state’s western region will close an hour later. Arkansas' polls close at 8:30 p.m. Minnesota’s caucuses begin at 8. Alaska’s caucuses close around midnight.

What is the “SEC Primary”?

The “SEC Primary” is a nickname for Super Tuesday and is an ode to the Southeastern Conference, an athletic conference that includes universities in many of the Southern states holding their contests on Tuesday. The heavy concentration of Southern states in Tuesday’s primaries—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas—gives a regional flavor to the voting, hence the alternate name.

How many delegates are at stake on Super Tuesday?

661 Republican delegates will be allocated, based on Super Tuesday, and 865 delegates for Democrats.

How are Super Tuesday delegates distributed?

Under party rules, no state holding its primary before March 15 can do a winner-take-all allocation of delegates, meaning that all Super Tuesday states will divide up their delegates in some way. In some states, that’s close to directly proportional to voter results, whereas others have a “winner-take-most” allocation structure or minimum vote thresholds for scoring delegates.

More here.

Gateway Pundit is already reporting on irregularities at the polls in Texas.

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“Rubio trounces Trump in the GOP debate” ???

Art credit: therightscoop.com

Today’s message from the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund PAC opened with its endorsement of Ted Cruz, followed by this:

Rubio routs Trump in Thursday’s debate.

After last month’s weak (devastating, really) debate performance in New Hampshire, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio desperately needed a win at this week’s debate. And on Thursday, he certainly got the win his campaign wanted.

Sen. Rubio’s winning strategy centered heavily on attacking Donald Trump’s record. For many of the past debates, Trump’s opponents have given him a pass, choosing instead to attack one another – they figured (wrongly, it turns out) that rather than challenging Trump directly, the better strategy was to attempt to knock each other out in hopes of being the Last Man Standing against Trump (at which point they believe the 65-70% of the anti-Trump voters in the GOP would rally to their cause). But with Trump’s latest victory in Nevada, the other candidates are quickly realizing the short-sightedness of that strategy. And Sen. Rubio, for one, decided it was time for Trump to account for his record on everything from founding a “fake university” that defrauded people, to his history of hiring undocumented immigrants.

During the debate, Trump – who long ago became accustomed to being unchallenged in the debates – seemed unable to regain his footing after several of Sen. Rubio’s zingers. . . .

But here are some key polls, h/t Conservative Treehouse:

Drudge Report  

Political Opinion 

Right Scoop  

Telegraph  

Wall Street Journal 

The Blaze (click on the list of names to see results)

TimeDotCom  (click on the list of names to see results) 

Slate

All these polls showed Trump the winner. The Blaze poll is especially telling, since everyone knows that Glenn Beck has endorsed Cruz and loathes Trump. The Telegraph didn’t much like the poll results, either. But regardless of where you stand on the candidates, it’s unfortunate that Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund claims that Marco Rubio the winner of the debate, that he trounced Trump, when the above polls show otherwise. Where was at least a qualifier?

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And then there were five.

carton credit: thefederalistpapers.com

Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, and Carson

AP: The ninth Republican debate of the presidential campaign will take place just a few days before 11 states hold GOP elections that will either cement Trump's dominance — or let his rivals slow his march to his party's presidential nomination.

Tonight on CNN (Cleveland area Time Warner ch. 34) at 8:30 pm.

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R.I.P. Justice Scalia

Cartoon by Glenn McCoy via Lucianne.com

From The Washington Times: 

The Rev. Paul Scalia, one of the justice’s sons, led the Mass at the nation’s largest Roman Catholic church, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northeast Washington. His four other sons served as pallbearers.

. . .

In the homily, Father Scalia said God blessed his father “with a love for his country.”

“He knew well what a close-run thing the founding of our nation was,” Father Scalia said. “And he saw in that founding, as did the Founders themselves, a blessing — a blessing quickly lost when faith is banned from the public square or when we refuse to bring it there.”

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Cuyahoga County Early Voting begins today Wednesday, February 17

Image credit: flchamber.com

Early voting and voting by mail for the 2016 Presidential Primary began today and will continue through March 14. Election Day is on March 15. 

Voters who are registered as Republican may want to wait until Election Day when the field may have gotten smaller. More information at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website here.

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George Washington’s Birthday

Art credit: www.history.com

George Washington’s Birthday

This article, originally written by David Azerrad and published in 2012, is reprinted today, President’s Day, at The Daily Signal:

Poor George Washington. His birthday, spontaneously celebrated since the revolution and formally declared a holiday in 1879, has slowly morphed into the insipid Presidents Day you’ll hear about Monday.

Washington, the “indispensable man” of the revolution who was rightly extolled for being “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” has now been lumped together with the likes of James Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Franklin Pierce and John Tyler.

It gets worse. Washington’s good name and great legacy are now shamelessly invoked to justify positions that he would never have envisaged.

In a Time Magazine special edition on Washington, historian Joseph Ellis matter-of-factly remarks: “He began the political tradition that produced a Union victory in the Civil War, the Federal Reserve Board, Social Security, Medicare and, more recently, Obamacare.”

Washington, who called on Americans to display “pious gratitude” for their Constitution and warned against any “change by usurpation,” is now a partisan of the sprawling welfare state and the unprecedented individual mandate.

Ellis even has the gall to hail Washington—the man who gracefully and voluntarily relinquished power after two terms when he could have stayed on for life—as the father of “strong executive leadership” and the precursor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who stayed in office for an unprecedented 12 years.

The true Washington still has much to teach us, in particular when it comes to the presidency, foreign policy and religious liberty. Although much has changed in the past two centuries, his sage advice and conduct in office have lost none of their relevance, anchored as they are in the timeless principles of the founding and a sober assessment of human nature.

Washington, like every president after him, swore the following oath upon taking office:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Unlike many presidents in the past 100 years, however, Washington took the oath seriously and did not try to place himself above the Constitution.

He understood himself to be the president of a republic in which the people, through their elected representatives in Congress, make laws—not some visionary leader who must define what progress requires and lead the unenlightened masses there.

Washington took care “that the laws be faithfully executed,” as when he quashed the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. He did not try to make the laws himself, either by issuing executive orders that circumvented Congress or by regulating what could not be legislated. He left behind no “signature” legislative accomplishments as we would say today. He only used his veto twice—once on constitutional grounds and once in his capacity as commander in chief.

Washington gave, on average, only three public speeches a year while in office—including the shortest ever inaugural address. And, of course, he had to be persuaded to serve a second term.

As a president who took his bearings from the Constitution, Washington devoted considerable attention to foreign policy. Our first president sought to establish an energetic and independent foreign policy. He believed America needed a strong military so that it could “choose peace or war, as our interest guided by justice shall Counsel.” His Farewell Address remains the preeminent statement of purpose for American foreign policy.

No survey of Washington’s legacy would be complete without acknowledging his profound commitment to religious liberty. Many today seem to have lost sight of the crucial distinction he drew between mere toleration and true religious liberty. As he explained in the memorable letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport:

All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.

On Monday, as we celebrate our greatest president, let us remember why he—and not Polk or, heaven forbid, Wilson—deserves a national holiday.

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